[Steam Workshop] Open Source conversion for abandoned mods

[Taco]

When publishing a mod to the public, I'd like to see Valve present the author with a formal, legal framework to opt-in for conversion to Open Source if the mod were to be abandoned. A mod could be abandoned manually within the Workshop or automatically based on author inactivity.

The author would define the duration of inactivity (e.g., no updates, no posts by the author to discussions or comments) required to trigger an automated abandonment. And, of course, automated abandonment could be avoided by responding to any of several "click this link"-style reminder emails from Steam.

I sank many hundreds of my gaming hours into Ark: Survival Evolved. I don't particularly enjoy the vanilla game, but a custom server with the right mods is addicting. Yet, I don't play at all now. The authors of many of my "right mods" have moved on, and the mods broke as the game continued to be updated.

Open source conversions would allow other, active modders the opportunity to perform the maintenance required to maintain compatibility or even pick up where the original author left off.

[Zekiran]

Steam does not have the right nor legal ability to allow people to access third party programs in any way, so this would be... so messy.

It's up to the mod maker to allow others to work on their abandoned projects, not Steam. Steam has absolutely NOTHING to do with that.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Copyright protection comes into play and that is a touchy situation to deal with.

[Zekiran]

Yeah. Mods are ... at the whim of the publisher of the product they are applied to, and even then there are plenty of ways that that itself can go sideways.

I've always been genuinely surprised that garry's mod hasn't been utterly slammed due to that.

But derivative work based on another product, no, that's not Valve's purview.

[Taco]

Three responses from people who apparently read no further than the subject but chose to write more than they read. I'm not asking Valve to convert any abandoned mods to open source!

I'm asking Valve to empower mod authors, giving them the ability to define under which circumstances their publically published mod will be considered abandoned. And, upon abandonment, instructing Valve to make the source available under some appropriate Creative Commons or other license.

[Zekiran]

Valve isn't a law firm, so they cannot do this in any way.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Taco:

When publishing a mod to the public, I'd like to see Valve present the author with a formal, legal framework to opt-in for conversion to Open Source if the mod were to be abandoned. A mod could be abandoned manually within the Workshop or automatically based on author inactivity.

Okay for starters define 'abandoned' secondly, that's a legal sticky wickety between rthe modder and the IP Hollder (the developers of the game being modded). That's not a minefield worth stepping into.

The author would define the duration of inactivity (e.g., no updates, no posts by the author to discussions or comments) required to trigger an automated abandonment. And, of course, automated abandonment could be avoided by responding to any of several "click this link"-style reminder emails from Steam.

Uhm..sio what happens if the Mod is just, you know, done. As in its operating in exactly the way the modder wants, does what the modder wanted to do, and has completed the goal the modder had when they created it.

I don't think yo'vbe thought mch abot this issue.

I sank many hundreds of my gaming hours into Ark: Survival Evolved. I don't particularly enjoy the vanilla game, but a custom server with the right mods is addicting. Yet, I don't play at all now. The authors of many of my "right mods" have moved on, and the mods broke as the game continued to be updated.

Sch is the way of mods. Ask the modders to release the code, or reverse engineer the mod yourself. You basically have access to the same tools the modder did and the files that they created. Go nuts.

Open source conversions would allow other, active modders the opportunity to perform the maintenance required to maintain compatibility or even pick up where the original author left off.

This as said is already possible in a way. Yo jst have to take the modded files and mod them with the same tools the modder used. Booyah.